The 10 greatest chokes in the history of sport

In the opening round of the 1996 Masters Greg Norman shot a course-record 63. Three days later he contrived to go round the same 18 holes at Augusta National in 15 strokes more. In the process he blew a six-shot lead - the biggest in Masters history - over Nick Faldo and converted it into a five-shot deficit. On the day Faldo was brilliant but brilliance alone would not have been enough to catch the Great White Shark had Norman not folded and run up a Great White flag.

2 Jana Novotna
Wimbledon final, 1993

Novotna led Steffi Graf 6-7 6-1 4-1 and at 40-30 in the sixth game of the deciding set had a service point for a 5-1 lead over the German. But Novotna double-faulted and arguably the greatest disintegration in a Wimbledon final had begun. Not much more than 10 minutes later Graf had won 7-6 1-6 6-4. The Duchess of Kent, trying to console the Czech player at the awards ceremony, said: 'Don't worry, Jana, you'll be back next year.' That did it for Novotna - 'I wanted to handle myself well,' she said, 'but when she smiled at me I just let go' - who wept uncontrollably on the Duchess's shoulder.

3 England penalty takers
Turin 1990, Wembley 1996, St Etienne 1998

The roll-call of shame. Step forward Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle, Gareth Southgate, Paul Ince and David Batty. Put England up against it, a semi-final of a major competition for example. Have them play against a top team and they will excel. They will overcome deficits, tears, near-misses and red cards. After 120 minutes of thrilling football the two teams can't be separated except by a penalty shoot-out. And then it happens. Someone has to miss, fail, be cast as the goat. But why does it have to be a man with three lions on his shirt who finds the task of kicking a ball into a goal from 12 yards so bloody difficult?

4 David Bedford
Olympic 5,000m, 1972

Between the end of the Australian Ron Clarke's reign and the start of the Africans' domination, David Bedford was among the most feared track athletes over longer distances. At the 1972 Games, the Briton ran disappointingly in the 10,000m to finish sixth but had the chance to make amends in the 5,000m. He was ranked number one in the world and had recently come within a second of Clarke's world record. A naturally aggressive front runner, Bedford seemed to have the race set up for him when it settled into a slow, tactical contest. But after four laps, the point at which he was due to move ahead, Bedford, who seemed weighed down by expectation, lost heart and finished anonymously down the field.

5 Roberto Duran
World title fight, New Orleans, 1980

When they choke, most athletes prefer that no one notices, that the world sees it as a defeat unbesmirched by an inner surrender. Roberto Duran, the fearsome Panamanian boxer, usually did things differently - and in his welterweight title fight against Sugar Ray Leonard in New Orleans in 1980 he performed one of the most unashamed and conspicuous chokes of all time. Confused and exasperated by Leonard's slick movement, Duran suddenly stopped fighting in the eighth and declared, 'No mas, no mas.' He couldn't take anymore and didn't mind who knew it.

6 Doug Sanders
Open Championship, St Andrews, 1970

Doug Sanders had two putts from 30 feet to win the 1970 Open at St Andrews, edging out the mighty Jack Nicklaus in the process. Sanders left his first effort - downhill and across the green - 30 inches short. Then things went really wrong. 'I was confident standing over it, and then I saw what I thought was a little piece of sand on my line,' recalls Sanders. 'Without moving my feet, I bent down to pick it up, but it was a piece of grass. I didn't take time to move away and get reorganised. I mishit the ball and pushed it to the right of the hole. It was the most expensive missed putt in the history of the game.' Too true. The following day he lost the 18-hole play-off to Nicklaus by a stroke.

7Jimmy White
World snooker final, Sheffield, 1994

This would surely be Jimmy White's year. The Whirlwind had lost in five world finals - including the first four of the 1990s - but now, in the tightest of showdowns against his nemesis Stephen Hendry, victory was just a few pots away. A 75 clearance by White had taken the score to 17-17 and in the deciding frame he had a straightforward black off the spot to put the championship beyond Hendry's reach. 'It was a bread-and-butter pot for someone of Jimmy's class,' said one veteran observer, 'but he missed it by so much that it could only have been a choke.'

8 Gavin Hastings
Rugby World Cup, Murrayfield, 1991

It should have been as straightforward as turning off a light switch for Scotland's Mr Reliable, Gavin Hastings. But in a World Cup semi-final against England - in front of your home crowd - a penalty from in front of the posts can unsettle even those with the iciest blood in their veins. Sure enough, Hastings sliced it and the score remained 6-6 until Rob Andrew's drop goal nicked it for England. As Hastings's kick sailed wide, the normally restrained England winger Rory Underwood let slip a four-letter expletive in surprise. That's how big a shock it was.

9 Scott Boswell
Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy final, Lord's, 2001

Two overs costing 23 runs isn't that rare in one-day cricket but when they consist of nine wides - eight in the second over, including five on the bounce - then it is a rare feat indeed. Scott Boswell had been man of the match when Leicestershire beat Lancashire in the semi-final, so it was no surprise when he was selected ahead of Devon Malcolm for the Lord's showpiece against Somerset. But under the pressure that comes with a major final Boswell's chest-on, round-arm action disintegrated and Somerset cruised to victory. A month later Boswell was released from his contract.

10 Scott Norwood
Super Bowl XXV, Tampa, 1991

In suburban Virginia Scott Norwood sells insurance. Those of his clients who recognise his name don't think of him as an ex-All Pro kicker in the NFL, they think of a 47-yard field goal that sailed 'wide right' in the dying seconds of Super Bowl XXV. Norwood's Buffalo Bills went into the 1991 Super Bowl as seven-point favourites over the New York Giants but with eight seconds left they trailed 20-19. Norwood had the chance to win it all but his kick drifted past the right upright. Within a year he was out of the game.

Justifying their selection...

Jon Henderson and Oliver Owen explain their choices:

The ability not to choke is the quintessence of becoming a high achiever in sport. That's what sets the professionals apart from those of us who lose our composure on school sports day.
Which is the reason why on those rare occasions that sporting stars do lose their nerve on the big occasion we find it difficult not to jeer.

Researching this list underscored one thing - that golf is the sport in which choking is most easily detected. It could have been entirely composed of golfers who blew it. A decision to confine to two the instances of the mighty-made-mortal by the little white ball is the reason why Jean Van de Velde (1999 Open), Bernhard Langer (1991 Ryder Cup) and countless others have escaped inclusion.

This is not to say there are more chokers in golf than in any other sport, just that those who flinch in other arenas are not so easily detected. Did the World Cup striker who missed the open goal lose his nerve or simply make a hash of it through one of those inexplicable rushes of incompetence? Did the Olympic sprinter lose in the final because of the intense atmosphere or because he or she had an off day?

Every effort has been made to seek out those who cracked under pressure rather than merely failed for no obvious reason, as even the best do occasionally. A veteran snooker observer, for example, said the margin by which Jimmy White missed the black in the 1994 final was too great for it to have been anything but a choke. We actually asked David Bedford to confirm he choked in 1972 after someone questioned his inclusion.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all those in this list for reassuring us that to err is human - and that includes all humans.

Now you have your say...

Have we scandalously overlooked your favourite choke? We thought so, and we want to hear why. Write and tell us who your 10 would be, justifying your selection in no more than 50 words. A selection of your 10s will be published next month.